MOTORSPORT: Walkinshaw impresses in Spanish practice (From Witney Gazette)

MOTORSPORT: Walkinshaw impresses in Spanish practice

9:10am Wednesday 20th March 2013 in Sport

CHIPPING Norton’s Sean Walkinshaw enjoyed two very positive days of officially-timed European Formula 3 Open testing at the Circuit de Catalunya.

It was the Team West-Tec driver’s maiden experience of the famous Spanish track, which will host the finale of the 2013 season in early November.

After a pair of top-six results in the Winter Series, the 19-year-old ‘Copa’ class driver continued to progress strongly in his Dallara-Toyota ahead of his Formula 3 debut inApril.

Lapping with a day-one best of 1min 45.334secs to place third in class at that point, Walkinshaw went on to finish in the Copa top six on his final outing.

The following day, he managed to find an additional 0.4secs.

Walkinshaw was fourth in class in session one, third in session two and fifth in both afternoon runs, where he set his fastest lap of all.

“The test, overall, was pretty good,” said Walkinshaw. “It was a very productive couple of days and I certainly learnt a lot more about the car.

“The overall lap time wasn’t as quick as I wanted as we didn’t find a good balance on the new tyres.

“We did a lot of good work focusing on race distances though, we found a great set-up and the times on those runs were good and consistent.

“I think we’ve laid some strong foundations for the main season.”